


Memory Baubles

by missingnowrites



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Memory Transfer, Pre-Genin, Rookie nine - Freeform, Time Travel, Yamanaka no Jutsu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-09-29 17:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20439452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missingnowrites/pseuds/missingnowrites
Summary: Ino is in the middle of kunoichi lessons, learning Ikebana, the art of flower arrangments, when she finds the unconscious stranger.





	1. A Message Among The Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I've had in mind for almost a decade now and never wrote, but the plot device is still fascinating and I've gotten into a Naruto phase (again) recently so uh... When I got stuck on Replacement I ended up writing this instead :'D
> 
> No idea how many chapters I'll do! I've planned at least three of similar length, but I might add more to this sporadically as the mood hits.

There’s a body in the meadow.

Ino stops a wary distance away, squinting into the shadows thrown by the huge willow tree. Blonde hair and green-blue clothes blend into the grass and surrounding flowers, hiding the shape from further away. But since Ino needs a couple mustard flowers growing on the outskirts of the Academy’s teaching grounds, she came all the way here and close enough to notice the blonde hair trailing between her desired blooms.

A glance back over her shoulder shows the rest of her class spread out over the meadow and Tsubaki-sensei busy talking with Ami and Mei.

Ino frowns. She really, _really_ wants to use mustard flower in today’s arrangement. It’s too perfect to leave it out of today’s assignment. Carefully, she inches closer. It’s a woman, she realizes, lying face-down in the dirt, limbs akimbo. The green vest looks exactly like any other Konoha uniform, though the white bandages up her arms and sleeveless shirt are far from regulation, and on closer inspection the pants were a dark purple rather than dark blue. Ino tilts her head, nose scrunching up in thought.

Purple really doesn’t go well with the green vest, she decides.

A groan startles her out of her contemplation, and Ino takes a hasty step back. The kunoichi (because that is what she has to be, uniform and all) stills at the noise, then slowly lifts her head. Blonde hair spills around her face like a curtain, but a blue eye pierces through the veil, pinning Ino in place with one intent look. Heart fluttering in her rib cage, Ino watches as the kunoichi sits up, brushing blonde hair back irritably, and-

“You’re a Yamanaka,” Ino blurts out, recognizing the familiar features. She’s never seen the kunoichi before, but she looks like she must be closely related to her dad. She could probably pass for his sister, if Ino didn’t know he doesn’t have any.

“I am,” the kunoichi agrees, her voice rough and hoarse. She clears her throat, glances over the meadow before her eyes land back on Ino. “So are you.”

Manners war with budding shinobi instincts and win. Ino sketches a quick bow. “Yamanaka Ino, pleased to meet you.”

A smile crinkles the kunoichi’s face, her blue eyes bright like a summer sky. “Nice to meet you, Ino-chan.”

She doesn’t introduce herself, and a trickle of unease slides down Ino’s spine. She glances back over her shoulder, but nobody is watching them. A moment of hesitation, but the kunoichi’s wearing a Konoha uniform, is clearly a Yamanaka, even if there’s a suspicious lack of a hitai-ate…

“Do you need help? I could call Tsubaki-sensei over...”

“No, that’s fine.” The kunoichi’s smile grows strained and her eyes shutter, like clouds blocking out the sun. She makes a come hither motion with the hand not pressed to the ground. “Come here for a second, Ino-chan.”

Ino bites her lip, glances back. Sakura-chan catches her eye and waves, so Ino waves back, relaxing. She gives herself a push, knowing Sakura-chan will call for help if she needs it, and besides, it’s silly to be wary of one of her own clan. The kunoichi isn’t even looking at her as Ino sidles up to her side, sitting down next to her. She’s smiling to herself, picking up a _shion_ flower and twirling it between her fingers. Remembrance, Ino thinks, or something similar.

“I’ve got a little mission for you, if you’re up to it, Ino-chan,” the kunoichi says absently, stretching to pick several bluebells (gratefulness) to add to her small bouquet.

“Of course!” Ino declares, straightening up. Her very first mission!

The kunoichi chuckles, leaning back against the willow tree. While Ino’s been distracted she’s added red spider lily, making Ino frown down at the bouquet. Spider lily signifies… abandonment, she thinks? Or lost memory. Combined with the remembrance of the _shion_ flower it makes for a very sad arrangement.

“Here, hold this for a moment,” the kunoichi says, pressing a pouch into Ino’s hands. It’s filled with several round objects, like smoke bombs. The kunoichi pulls the string open and picks up the topmost orb. It’s round and shiny like glass, filled with a blue-white gas twirling in complex patterns. The entire pouch seems full with more of the baubles. The kunoichi holds the orb up and it gleams as it catches the light.

“Pretty,” Ino murmurs, entranced. The kunoichi gives her a crooked smile.

“This won’t hurt much,” she promises and presses the orb against Ino’s forehead, who opens her mouth to protest. But before she can say anything, the orb lights up with a brilliant glow, and Ino closes her eyes with a gasp. Thoughts fill her mind, alien and yet… not. Familiar, even though she’s never had them before, and with a jolt she realizes they’re carving new paths between her neurons with ease.

Definitely a Yamanaka jutsu, if not one she knows. Or, well. _Knew_, because she remembers it now with startling clarity.

The kunoichi – Yamanaka Ino – didn’t lie, it barely stings. Because these memories used to be hers, are built in a pattern that’s based on her own brain’s, except hers is not yet as developed. Because they are _her_ thoughts, _her_ memories, even if she hasn’t thought them, lived them yet. Because that kunoichi is _her_, just older, powerful and desperate.

In the distance, she can hear Sakura-chan shout for Tsubaki-sensei in alarm.

Ino blinks the onslaught of images (not quite images, but it’s how her brain is interpreting the influx of new data) out of her eyes and looks up at the kunoichi (herself, she thinks giddily, how cool is _that_?). She knows what comes next, and it’s sad but… Ino-san is smiling at her, holding out the bouquet to her surrounded by yellow poppies (success) and… maybe it’s okay.

“There’s one more in there for you,” she says, even though Ino _knows_. “Better wait a week or two, though. Don’t want to overwhelm your big brain.”

“Yeah,” Ino agrees because she can feel the thoughts settling and it’s already giving her a headache. Her heart aches more, though, and she reaches out and squeezes the kunoichi’s hand. “I’ll fix everything. I promise.”

Ino-san smiles at her, gentle and fond. “Hell yeah you will.”

Tsubaki-sensei arrives in a whirl of leaves carried by a strong breeze just as her older self coughs, blood splattering over the fist she holds up in front of her mouth. Ino steps back, and the kunoichi crumbles. As she hits the ground she disperses into dust, including her clothes. Another strong breeze and soon nothing is left of Yamanaka Ino but her memory and the bouquet she gave to Ino.

“Ino-chan, are you alright? Do you know who that was?”

Ino shakes her head and lets Tsubaki-sensei herd her back to the rest of the class. While her teacher’s attention is drawn away by checking the perimeter, looking for more strangers potentially targeting the Academy students, Ino stealthily slips the bag of memory baubles into her backpack.

Once they’re all gathered in a group, Tsubaki-sensei shoos them back into the Academy building, and Sakura-chan sidles up next to her. She glances furtively around, checking everyone else is far enough away, whispering in groups, too busy themselves to eavesdrop. Still, Sakura-chan lowers her voice to a whisper.

“Ino-chan, who was-?” Ino interrupts her with a firm look. Flustered, Sakura-chan stops, before chancing a glance at Tsubaki-sensei, talking to two unfamiliar adults and gesturing sharply to their training ground. Sakura-chan swallows and squares up, a stubborn glint in her eyes as she turns back to Ino. “What happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m okay, and I’ll explain later.” Sakura-chan opens her mouth to protest, but Ino shakes her head and presses a finger to Sakura’s lips. “_Later_,” she insists with a pointed look at her classmates. “Maybe you can come over to my place after school?”

“Alright,” Sakura-chan caves, and Ino relaxes. Clearly looking for a new topic, Sakura-chan’s eyes drop to Ino’s hands. “That’s a pretty bouquet, Ino-chan. Did you gather it?”

Ino looks down, startled to realize she kept hold of the flowers her older self picked. Nestled between the _shion_ flower and the spider lily is a single sweat pea.

_Goodbye_, Ino thinks and smiles sadly, brushing a finger over the pink petals.

“Yeah,” she says in answer to Sakura-chan’s question, and it isn’t a lie, not really. “Yeah, I did.”


	2. Calm Before The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first rule of lying is to always stretch the truth instead of making stuff up. Ino learned from the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Sakura this chapter! I actually expected her to show up in the later half, but then decided to give you guys more info on the jutsu first instead of having the exposition bloat the conversation between Sakura and Ino.

It’s perhaps no wonder her dad comes to get her soon after. Ino half expects to be dragged before the Sandaime or into T&I, to be perfectly honest. And if she were older they might have, but as it is she’s still a kid, and her dad is one of the top interrogators of Konoha anyway. He knows her too well for her to lie, and if she exhibits any changed behaviours… well, T&I is still a possibility, if more of a last resort.

“Ino-chan!” he calls, and Ino takes a moment to wave Sakura-chan goodbye before running over and tackling her dad in a hug. His arms draw tight around her, a note of worry straining his tone. “How are you feeling, my little blossom?”

“I’m fine, Daddy.” Ino wriggles her way out of the hug, faintly embarassed when she hears Ami and her group snickering. Sticking her nose up, Ino decides to ignore them. “Are we going home now?”

Inoichi hesitates, then nods, holding out a hand for her. She grabs it and squeezes reassuringly.

“Yes, I think that’s for the best. Ready to go, blossom?”

“Yeah, one moment!” Ino picks up her backpack and shrugs it on. “Alright, let’s go!”

Her dad crouches down and she jumps onto his back with a delighted laugh, wrapping her arms loosely around his throat. Piggyback rides are amazing, and while she recognizes the attempt to put her at ease, it doesn’t mean she won’t take advantage. Wind blows her hair back to fly in a banner parallel to her dad’s blond tail as they flit across the rooftops at high speeds. Too soon they’ve reached the flower shop, and Ino reluctantly slides down to the ground when her dad stops and crouches to let her down.

It’s not until they’re past the shop front and up the stairs into their home that the questions start. Her dad starts fussing with the tea set while Ino hops up onto the counter, legs dangling.

“Can you tell me what happened, Ino?”

He doesn’t look at her, not directly, but she can feel his attention isn’t on making the tea at all. So she shrugs and looks down at her lap.

“Dunno. There was this kunoichi, she was wearing the Konoha uniform, see?” Ino reached out to tug on her dad’s green vest. “An’ I guess she kinda looked like a Yamanaka, like, long blonde hair and blue eyes like we have, you know? Thought she might be related to you, Daddy.”

Her dad sets the tea aside to let it steep and turns to look at her, carefully taking her hands in his big ones.

“Can you show me?” he asks, face serious.

Ino nods and concentrates, eyes narrowing as she calls the image of her older self to the forefront of her mind. Her dad forms the snake seal and channels chakra, meeting her eyes. It’s not the mind swap or a mind walk technique, but similar, supposed to skim the surface thoughts of the target. It’s how Yamanaka can exchange important information via eye contact in sensitive situations. But it’s also easy to lie this way, since the user can only see what the other person is focussed on.

And Ino focusses on the kunoichi, hair blowing in the wind, blue eyes kind and smile slightly crooked as she picks the _shion_ flower. Her dad frowns and stays silent as he digests the image.

“She was picking flowers?” he prompts, gaze unfocussed and clearly distracted.

“Yeah! A shion flower surrounded by bluebells, but also a sweat pea so...” Ino scrunched up her face. “I’m not quite sure what she wanted to say? Especially with a red spider lily.”

She leaves out the yellow poppies because Ino _knows_ why she added them and her dad would find it quite suspicious. She really needs to escape suspicion for just a little longer, at least long enough to get the rock rolling. Once she gets Sakura-chan up to speed, and maybe even Shikamaru…

“Oh! Sakura-chan was gonna come over later, we were gonna do homework together. Is that okay, Daddy?” Ino opens her eyes wide and pouts up at her dad, knowing why he might say no (she could be compromised, and it doesn’t help that she actually _is_, just not the way they think). Still, her dad hesitates.

“Later, maybe. For now, I need to know what happened next. Did you see anything else?”

Ino purses her lips, thinking hard what she can get away with saying. “There was a blinding light, and then the kunoichi crumbled into dust and Tsubaki-sensei was there. I dunno, I didn’t see her make any hand signs-” Technically true, her eyes were closed after all, even if she does know exactly what jutsu her older self activated. “-or anything. Um, her pants were more purple than blue? An’ I don’t think I saw her hitai-ate anywhere.”

“That’s… that’s good, Ino-chan. Good eye,” her dad praises her, and Ino flushes with a mix of guilt and pride churning in her stomach. “Do you remember anything else?”

But Ino shakes her head. Better not to say too much.

“Alright. Thank you, sweetheart.” Her dad brushes a kiss to her forehead and smiles. “You should clean up your room before Sakura-chan gets here.”

“Yay!” Ino cheers, throwing her arms around her dad’s neck. “Thank you, Daddy!”

And with that she runs off. Her room should be fine as is, but she has handsigns to practice before Sakura-chan comes over.

The Memory Transfer jutsu has to be an S-rank secret Yamanaka clan technique, what with how powerful it is. She wonders if it already exists, or if her clan developes it in the future. Her heart skips a beat, and a grin stretches across her face. Maybe _she_ is the one to create it! Her very own special jutsu!

There wasn’t that much information in the memories she got from her older self. For the most part it’s just knowledge of the jutsu, how it works and how to activate the baubles. There’s seals involved in the creation of the glass orbs themselves, confusing and complicated and not something that was transferred with the rest of the knowledge. But she knows how to engrave a memory into the sealed bauble and how to transfer it from there to a target, and that’s all she needs for now.

Besides, Ino-nee-san said there was a second bauble in the pouch for her!

Ino’s hands hover over her backpack, and she chews on her lips while she thinks. Her older self told her to wait, and at the thought the knowledge surfaces: how taxing the transfer is on the target’s brain, how the newly established neuronal connections need time settle or else she risks overwriting them. And that would be bad, because aside from the knowledge of the jutsu and everything it entails (she knows so much more about neuroanatomy now than she ever knew to even ask for!), the only other piece of information is this: who the baubles belong to, along with their names and faces.

It’s a good thing most of them are in her class, she thinks. Those that aren’t are going to be much harder to reach. She wonders if that Sai guy is an Uchiha, he certainly looks like one.

She dithers for a moment more, before pulling out her homework instead of the pouch. From what she remembers (and that still leaves her giddy. Memories of the future!), if the memory is transferred to the wrong person, it doesn’t take quite right. It’s like there’s something lost in translation. Ino-nee-san’s theory was that, since they are transfering memories to their own younger selves they should lose less, since the pathways are copied from a brain with the same structures, only missing some.

Of course, that’s not quite true and Ino-nee-san was fudging the lines a little to fake confidence, but taking into account that the targets are all _children_ it should work out well enough. Neural plasticity is kinda amazing like that, and Ino agrees with her older self. Even if there’s some details lost, this mission is important enough to risk it.

Ino pauses, pen hovering over the first question she’s supposed to answer. The reason _why_ this secret mission is so important hasn’t been transferred with her other new knowledge, nor is she really sure _how_ Ino-nee-san managed to come back through time to deliver the baubles to her, but…

Well. It’s her older self, and clearly she’s just awesome like that. Nodding, Ino continues with her homework, certain that any reason she herself deems important enough is a good one.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to adopt the premise and do they're own take, please throw me a link! I'd love to read it :D (I'd also love the inspired by credit so others can find both <3)
> 
> I've got 3 chapters of similar length planned, but I might add more if I'm in the mood again in the future!


End file.
